Taylor Hicks better win American Idol tonight. My entire faith in the U.S. voting sytem depends on it. Really. It seems to be the only voting sytem in America that is a true view of the voter’s these days…

Now on to the less important NASCAR muse…

Dale Jarrett left RYR on his own accord. There was plenty of warning. Now Eddie D’Hondt will be leaving too, not by choice. Yate” decision to fire D’Hondt is about losing more than Jarrett. This is about losing UPS. They should have been thinking about that a long…long. time ago.They might consider hiring a Crytal Ball Seer so she/he can tell them ~ “I see Toyota cars with UPS all over them in the future…I see Elliot Sadler saying…I shouldn’t HAVE to run the Busch races…I should just be in the races I want to be. Why should I just make you more money when there are more than enough Busch Whacker’s in there.” She would see him running away from Robert Yates Racing as soon as he possibly can…”

The “Big H” might want to hire her/him ~ The Seer, too…and get on the stick about it. She/he would say…”I see Chad Knaus being offered LARGE sums of $$ to be the Crew Chief of a Toyota car….I see lot’s of picture’s on the news featuring Dale Jarrett and Chad Knauss putting their heads together… I see many team owner’s upset over the aggression , money and smart strategy going in to forming the Toyota Team(s).”

I haven’t written anything on the subject of D.J. moving and how my #1 #88 fan Dale felt about it. He is a die hard Redneck Republican. The quintessential percieved picture of the “Good ol’ Boy” NASCAR Fan. The only thing missing… he is from Vancouver WA., instead of the South and he has some interesting French/ Russian/Native American/ Mexican – Toltec bloodlines.

When the rumors began about DJ going to Toyota, we had some very interesting conversations about Fan/Driver loyalty. He loves Dale Jarrett. His license plate on his truck read UPS 88. His bathroom in our home is a DJ bathroom. We have more pictures of DJ on the walls of our home than we do of the kids and grandkids. SERIOUSLY. When we were first considering buying a new truck, my Dale fully intended to buy his truck from Dale Jarrett Ford. When the time came that we bought one, Dale was going through his treatment and was too sick to do that, so we bought locally. That was the only thing that kept him from flying there and driving back with a Ranger that had Dale Jarrett Ford on the back of the tailgate and license plate frame.He at first was upset. I said “Well you not a very loyal fan, now are you? I would think that if you really were a Dale Jarrett fan then it wouldn’t matter who he drove for would it? Of couse that led to retorts of ” There is a differance between being a fan and a stalker.” implying I am a Tony Stewart stalker.Bla bla bla….ya-da-ya-da-ya-da…Slurp…

Then he started talking about how he didn’t think RYR was giving Jarrett what he needed to race well. He was ticked about the Todd Parrott shuffle. Then it was, “What’s up with the engineering here? It has to be something!” Then he would go back to NASCAR should onnly have American made cars…bla…bla…bla. Again.When the Mikey made the “announcement that he was going to make an announcement” it gave my #1 #88 a day to think about whether he was abandoning ship or not. He knew he was going to have to make a choice. (Being forced to choose is not a favorite thing of his in any part of life. He’s an independent thinking kinda guy. Usually if he is forced into something he will go the opposite way …running…right or wrong. Usually wrong. Like me.)Anyway…he stuck with Jarrett’s decision and is actually excited about the possibilities. He is praying UPS does goe with Jarrett. He kind of likes my idea of Chad being Jarrett’s crew Chief if the NASCAR World was controlled by me.SO on we go…Like I said at the beginning of the year in my ‘scopes…2006 is going to continue to be a year of Great Controversy in NASCAR.